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PNoy urges countries to have moral responsibility to end climate change

President Benigno Aquino III has urged countries “contributing immensely to the global warning” to have a sense of moral responsibility and help end climate change.

“To that most-developed countries that are contributing immensely to the global warming, there has to be a sense of moral responsibility that what they wreak is playing havoc on the lives of so many others who are less capable of defending for themselves,” Aquino said in an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour Tuesday.

He said the effects of climate change is very real in the Philippines.

“We are, again, at the tail-end. When wet seasons are supposed to have been over and we have the super typhoon. It wreaks havoc on our planting season wherein our farmers are getting hard pressed to adjust to this global climate change,” he said.

Aquino reminded the leaders of different countries that “we all live in one planet.”

“Either we come up with a solution that everybody adheres to and cooperates with or let us be prepared to meet disasters, ever increasing disasters on a global level,” he said.

The President noted that during the wet season, rains seldom comeand dry months suddenly become very, very wet.

“For instance since I assumed office, practically every year when we are supposed to be in the Christmas spirit where we never had typhoons, we have very, very strong and devastating typhoons like what happened last year,” he said, referring to Typhoon Pablo which ravaged parts of Mindanao in 2012.

“I think it’s already an accepted reality for the Filipino community that global climate change is a reality and there should be no debate that this is happening,” he added.

During the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s 19th Conference of Parties (COP), Philippine's lead climate change negotiator Naderev Saño called for global solidarity to curb greenhouse gas emissions and to help vulnerable countries withstand the impacts of extreme weather.

Saño was emotional in his opening speech as his hometown Leyte was one of the hardest hit by Typhoon Yolanda, the 24th storm to hit the Philippines this year and one of the world's strongest on record.

He lamented that, twenty years since the climate negotiations started, the world has yet to find a effort to stop humankind’s harmful interference with the global climate. Previous climate change talks have ended in diluted compromises and commitments that have yet to be fulfilled.

Saño urged developed countries to do more to cut their greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. The COP should also assure the developing world of funding for adaptation projects and mobilization of the Green Climate Fund to help vulnerable countries and communities become more resilient.

The COP should also address the loss and damage from dangerous climate impacts by poor countries like the Philippines, who have to bear the brunt of extreme weather conditions. According to Saño, about 5% of the Philippines’ gross domestic product is cut yearly by the effects of climate change. — Amita O. Legaspi /LBG, GMA News